Thursday, May 14, 2015

Xiaomi is one of the successful mobile phone companies in India, making a killing with their flash sales of RedMi and Mi series of custom MIUI mobile devices.

In fact, among the famous low-end mobile device companies in India, which includes Micromax, Xolo, Lava, Gionee, Karbonn, and Yu(which is actually Micromax's youth brand) - Xiaomi has the biggest success.

Among the old brands, only Motorola, Asus and Lenovo) have cheaper mobile devices to offer. Other companies like Samsung, Sony, HTC, and of course Apple are selling only at a premium. Which means, even though the devices are technically having the same features as the low-end companies phones, they are priced several margins of price higher.

Let us have a look at Xiaomi's Mi4i, Motorola's Moto G second edition and Asus Zenfone 2(ZE550ML).

Motorola Moto G 2nd edition

Xiaomi Mi4i

Asus Zenfone 2(ZE550ML)

Display
Both Mi4 and MotoG2 have a 5 inch display, BUT the Mi4i has 1080p(which is full HD resolution) unlike the MotoG2 which has only 720p(halfHD). Zenfone 2 has a larger 5.5 inch display but is only 720p.
So, Mi4i wins in the display category. But if you want a larger display(phablet), then Zenfone 2 is good(except that the resolution becomes even worse).

Design
Xiaomi's Mi4i is also thinner(7.8mm vs 11mm vs 10.9mm) and lighter(130g vs 149g vs 170g) than MotoG2 and Zenfone2.Camera
Mi4i and Zenfone2 have 13mp rear camera and a 5mp front camera, while it is 8mp and 2mp for motoG2(which is kind of poor for today's selfie trend)

Processor
The best processor by far is the 64bit octa core Snapdragon 615 on the Mi4i while the other other two have quad core chips - a lower snapdragon on motoG2 and am Intel Atom on Zenfone2.
No dounbt that Mi4i wins this.

But there have been complaints of overheating in the Mi4i, which have been fixed by a software update for some people, while it still overheats during gaming for some.(which may be normal)

RAM
Mi4i and Zenfone 2 have 2GB while MotoG2 has 1GB

Storage
Mi4i and Zenfone2 have inbuilt 16GB(which should be enough for regular use) while MotoG2 has only 8GB which is on the lower side if you need to put music and movies and install high-graphics games.

The good news is that Zenfone2 and MotoG2 have expandable memory card slot, so you can put in an old memory card to fill in more stuff. Mi4i does not have expandable memory.
But you can make do with an OTG pen drive if the need arises.

Operating system
All are based on Android Lollipop 5.0, but which MotoG2 is stock Android straight from Google, the Zenfone2 has ZenUI mods and Mi4i and MIUI mods. These mods are quite good.(unlike the slow, clunky TouchWiz from Samsung)

Battery
Mi4i - 3120 mAh
Moto G2 - 2070 mAh
Zenfone 2 - 3000 mAh

Battery is now the limiting factor in most mobiles and MotoG2 is just barely adequate for a day for moderate to rough use.

Connectivity
Mi4i and Zenfone2 are 4G LTE enabled mobiles. But MotoG2 is only 3G

Price
Mi4i and Zenfone2 are both Rs12,999/- at present
MotoG2 is now Rs10,999/- (earlier price was Rs12,999/- but it received a price cut recently)

So, there you have it. A comparison of three budget but high-end smartphones under Rs13,000/-

Me - I would go for Zenfone2 > Mi4i > MotoG2

Of course, you could go for an Mi4 Mi 4 (White, 16GB)
(without the i) which has got a 10% discount on Amazon India